NPP’s PC Appiah-Ofori kicks against compilation of new voters’ register

Outspoken New Patriotic Party (NPP) stalwart, Paul Collins Appiah-Ofori, has kicked against the relentless move by the Electoral Commission (EC) to compile a new voters’ register ahead of the 2020 elections.

He rather suggested that the EC opened the electoral register for fresh voters to register, remove names of the dead and foreigners and update the existing software to make it more efficient.

Mr Appiah-Ofori, the former Member of Parliament for Assikuma-Odoben-Brakwa(AOB), is also an anti-graft campaigner.

Speaking in an interview with the media in Assin-Fosu, the NPP bigwig said: "The register and the IT systems only need an upgrade and not to be discarded entirely."

"In the face of the raging coronavirus pandemic and strain on limited resources, there is no need to throw out everything and acquire totally new infrastructure when the present system could be augmented and made capable of performing the task."

He also encouraged the EC to replace faulty equipment and acquire new hardware to augment the existing stock and work with the existing systems.

The EC alone, he said, cannot declare that the whole system was useless and saddle the nation with the cost of a new one, especially when the only foundation for its assertion was not in tandem with the reality.

He charged the EC to be more proactive and act with urgency in view of the closeness of elections 2020 and publish a clear timetable of activities of the 2020 elections.

The former MP told politicians to desist from bastardizing the EC for not towing to their mischievous whims and caprice.

They should work closely with the EC to ensure that Ghana had an acceptable voters’ register ahead of the 2020 elections, especially when there was wide consensus that the register contained illegal entries.

He called on politicians to eschew pronouncements which tend to undermine the peace and cohesion of the Country and as a way of getting the EC to meet their demands regarding the register.